YOUR PERMANENT RECORD

It probably comes too little too late

for everyone

if it comes at all;

That fabled lightning-bolt-like moment of clarity

that suddenly, out of nowhere, opens up over you

in the middle of the haunted,

fairy tale dark forest

that life can so easily

somehow morph into.

One minute you're standing

in a grocery store looking for…

what was it you were looking for?

The next, you're in a clearing,

surrounded by what you can only assume

are a few thematic variations

of The Ghost Of Who You Could Have Been

Had You Just Paid A Little More Attention

And Followed Directions.

One of them

(strangely enough, the best dressed one

in the best physical shape and still

with the kindest expression on his face)

steps forward with one of those Blackberries

or maybe even one of those

I-phones everyone's been talking about:

"See,

here's where you

first really fucked up,

but could still have

possibly recovered.

Then here,

here,

here, here

and here,

oh, and then here.

But, pretty much by that time

you were just making the same mistake

over and over and there was

no real hope

of getting out of

the hole."


-Jason Ryberg, 2009